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Monday, 30 April 2012

I had more or less given up on hip hop for a good few years. I was taken in by the blissfully raucous noise that is riot grrrl as a teenager and since then I have found a home for my feelings and emotions in growling distortion and the twang of tight guitar strings. I'm like the guys from Flight of the Conchords, I can only express myself through music (except I don't write witty comedy tunes, just a sparsely updated music blog). Try as I may I can't say I've ever found a home in hip hop like I did with riot grrrl, but that doesn't mean I've given up all hope of finding it. I always have time for someone who wants to shake me by my shoulders and scream "what are you talking about hip hop is the future". Futuristic hip hop duo THEESatisfaction did just that to me.

THEESatisfaction, Stasia Irons and Catherine Harris-White, are a spaced out, jazz-infused hip hop duo that are a step and half ahead of the rest of their contemporaries. The duo are both musical and real life partners. Listen to any THEESatisfaction song to hear their closeness in every melody and every beat. Irons delivers a silky lyrical rhyme for Harris-White to take and inject a kind of soul Aretha would be jealous of into every nook and cranny of the song.

Their style is minimalist, some songs, such as 'Bitch', are just a few simplistic beats and vocals. The duo takes cues from acts such as De La Soul, Erykah Badu and that type of early 90s hip hop that was influenced by jazz, funk and spoken word poets. 'Do You Have The Time' samples an addictive falsetto vocal, which is apt since the band spend the rest song singing about getting high and "chilling out easily".

Along with a love of capitalisation, something that makes someone like me who edits copy for a living very anxious, THEESatisfaction also love to pay homage to their roots with songs like 'On What It Means To Be Black' and 'I Nigress'. They are a powerful sight to behold as well. They command the stage with just a laptop to keep them company, clad in dashikis and afros Angela Davis would be proud of. I almost want to email them just to ask them hair tips. So Catherine how do you get your hair to stay so strong? Stasia come on girl be honest. You're using a special conditioner in that aren't you? That's not just a wash and go do.

It may seem strange but the idea of a hip hop duo that consisted of two black women who shied away from weaves, fake nails and butt surgery, and they were also stridently political seemed so amazing to me I had to check again just to see if I hadn't imagined it. I love that I can listen to a band and know that they represent a part of myself that is rarely represented well, if at all. THEESatisfaction have just realised their debut album on Sub Pop that is full of fuzzed out, laid back soul and they know how to rock a dashiki. What's not to love about them.

Monday, 23 April 2012

This post was meant to go up around Easter, in time for the gluttonous religious event that has everyone gaining an extra 4lb by the time it's over. A few weeks too late shouldn't matter too much because this mixtape is relevant all year round. I've decided to dedicate an entire mixtape to the delicious treats that we like to have on occasion (i.e. every day. Don't judge me).

From 'milkshake' to 'chocolate' there are a lot of tracks that make my mouth water for many reasons. Take my advice, this mixtape is best enjoyed in the company of Ben, and Jerry too, lying in a bathtub full to the brim with dairy milk chocolate. It would mean you'd have to face cleaning the bathroom the next day but it'd be worth it.

Monday, 2 April 2012

As a connoisseur of this grand old art called music I generally think I've heard pretty much every genre going. So you could guess when I heard about this band that were making, what the writer described as, 'afro-beat soul' I was pretty intrigued.

The band in question are The Lijadu Sisters, identical twin sisters Taiwo and Kehinde Lijadu, who decided to make forward thinking, funk, post-punk music in 1970s Nigeria, which, as you could imagine, was not an easy task. The sisters had to fight for their right to be heard and remembered, they have recently released a collection of their greatest hits, in an industry and decade that didn't want to hear women sounding anything other than 'nice'.

As you'd expect their sound could be described as many things but never 'nice'. They sing the same thing at the same time throughout all their songs, which takes a while to get used to at first. Jagged guitars and nagging synths constantly weave themselves in and out of songs that are based around an steady, afrobeat rhythm. I know. It's a lot to get you're head around. Too many genres, too much to think about but stay with me here.

Not only is their music interesting but their lyrics show that the sisters were more than just two pretty faces. 'Danger' documents a turbulent relationship with, what we are to assume is a violent lover, as the sisters sing that he "came into my life and dispersed danger". 'Cashing In' is a cynical take on the consumerist world, which sees the sisters shout in unison "We're cashing in, prostitution, yeah, we're cashing in, revolution yeah / Poverty is still a common sight." It's that kind of social commentary that you would expect to hear from The Clash or X-Ray Spex, which makes the Lijadu Sisters so intriguing.

There are a few interviews with the sisters here and there but not enough. I wish there were more out there about them that I could find but short of going on a trip to Nigeria and asking them myself some questions may have to remain unanswered. In the meantime I'll be listening to theirrecently released best of album and then finding someone who looks slightly like me to sing in unison with. I think it's a good plan.

Sunday, 1 April 2012

I heard about the Trailer Trash Tracys a while ago, back in the day when I was interning at Plan B magazine. My task for the day was to find out more about a of couple of up and coming bands at the time, one of them being Trailer Trash Tracys.

I thought it would be an easy task but after hours and hours of searching all I could find about them on the internet was one extremely sparse Last FM page. Not very useful to me at all. Fast forward three years later and TTTs are everywhere and they're only going to get bigger.

The main reason I love this band also is because when I hear their name I think of an old time country band with banjos and homely looking women screaming their lungs out.

TTTs are obviously nothing like that. Their brand of spaced out, electro fuzz is perfect for those who want to reminise about the good old days when bands like My Bloody Valentine, Jesus and Mary Chain and Mazzy Star ruled the indie world. They're essentially the 80s in smaller, cooler, better dressed nutshell. Now I don't know about you but, I, for one, am excited about that whole idea.